Words
by Lil-Samuu
Summary: A conversation set fairly late on during the game featuring most of the characters. One-shot, sort of humour.


A one shot set during the game featuring most of the characters. A conversation that occurs on a walk between two towns fairly late on in the game.

Spoiler warning: contains spoilers about where Sheena, Zelos and Regal are from.

Dedication: to Zelda Master (/Arctic Husky) who inspired this. I hope it amuses her.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, I believe that it belongs to Namco.

* * *

Despite what people might assume about the world reunification journey it wasn't all battling monsters and zipping around towns to stock up on supplies. There were many times when the group of heroes found themselves walking for hours at a time without any interruptions. They amused themselves during these times in a variety of ways. Sometimes some of them sang, sometimes they played games, although 'I spy with my little eye' had been abandoned after the umpteenth game featuring tree, grass, rocks and so on over and over again. Sometimes Raine took the opportunity to teach the young adults she still considered to be her students, giving them homework to be completed when they stopped to rest for the evening at an inn or by a campfire, although Lloyd had protested that that didn't really seem right as where they were wasn't home.

Most of the time though they talked. All sorts of topics had been covered over the many miles they'd trekked across the two worlds, from mundane things such as what they were going to eat for supper to serious philosophical discussions and sessions of telling bad jokes.

What had started one day as what might have been expected to have been an everyday sort of conversation soon turned into a rather interesting one. It had started when Colette thought out loud that it was about time she had a haircut as her fringe was becoming a little uncomfortably long.

"Fringe?" Zelos asked, a puzzled expression on his face.

By way of explanation Colette tugged at the hair on her forehead that was beginning to get in the way of her eyes.

"Oh, bangs," Zelos nodded, understanding what the blonde was talking about.

"Bangs?" Colette repeated, wearing a similar expression to the one Zelos had worn a short time ago.

"Don't you guys use that word on Sylvarant?" Zelos asked.

"Bang is a noise, like, say, when Raine tries to cook something and the pot explodes, with a big loud bang, right Lloyd?" Colette said, turning to her friend. He nodded.

"Well, yeah, but it can mean your hair too," Zelos shrugged. Lloyd and Colette frowned at him.

"Hey Sheena, tell these bumpkins that I'm right, that bangs is the right word for the hair on your forehead," Zelos called over to the summoner who was walking a little way away from them.

"It is another word for fringe, yes," Sheena nodded.

Zelos frowned.

"What is it with you guys and your strange words?" he asked.

"Strange words?" Colette asked, her head tipped to one side in a gesture of confusion.

"Yeah, like sarnie, brolly and codswallop. I mean what is codswallop anyways?" he asked.

"It's rubbish," Lloyd answered in a matter of fact tone.

"Yes, I know it's a rubbish word, but what's it supposed to mean?" Zelos replied.

Sheena hit her forehead and sighed.

"He means it means rubbish, nonsense, that sort of thing," the summoner explained.

"How come you can understand bumpkin speak?" the redhead asked, surprised.

"We use those words in Mizuho too. Maybe Meltokio's the odd place out," Sheena suggested, shrugging.

"Regal, do you know what a sarnie is?" Zelos asked.

"A sandwich I think," the older man replied.

"You think?" Zelos asked him to elaborate.

"I'm guessing that's what it means based on the way some of the others use the word," Regal explained.

"So before you heard Lloyd and the others use it you hadn't heard that word at all?" Zelos asked.

Regal shook his head in reply.

"Perhaps when the worlds were split apart vocabulary developed a bit differently?" Raine suggested, joining in with the conversation.

"So why does Sheena know the Sylvarant words then?" Zelos asked, still puzzled.

"This isn't my first language you know," Sheena said. "Right Colette?"

"That's right, Mizuhoan is your first language," Colette replied slowly in Mizuhoan, smiling happily as Sheena nodded to indicate that she had spoken the sentence correctly.

"Woah, wait, we don't need another language in this conversation," Zelos groaned.

"I don't think that what you've been talking about is really a language, a better word might be dialect perhaps," Raine said, a thoughtful expression appearing on her face as she pondered over the matter.

"Maybe the person or people who taught the village this language originally came from Sylvarant?" Sheena suggested.

"That's possible perhaps," Raine nodded.

"They're such peculiar sounding words though, how'd you come up with them?" Zelos shook his head as he returned to the original topic of the discussion.

"You use some words that sound just as unusual," Colette said quietly.

"Such as?" the other Chosen prompted.

"Well, like, uh, barf and zucchini," Colette said.

"And you keep calling ladybirds ladybugs," Lloyd added.

"Well they are ladybugs, and what's wrong with zucchini?" Zelos asked.

"If codswallop's a weird word then so is zucchini. They're called courgettes anyways," Lloyd nodded.

"I wonder why such different names for them developed," Collette pondered.

"That's a good question Colette. Now, why don't we discuss and examine the origins of each name and…" Raine started to slip into a kind of ruin mode.

"Uh, Sheena, do you see that really interesting looking thing over there in the distance?" Colette asked, her tone slightly worried as she heard the way in which Raine was speaking.

"Why yes, um, Lloyd, why don't you help us investigate it?" Sheena asked, jumping at the chance to run away from Raine while she was in this sort of mood.

"OK, that sounds like a very very good plan," Lloyd nodded, grabbing Colette's hand and running away in a gesture they'd practiced many times since they were little and leaving Zelos wishing that he'd never started this line of conversation in the first place.


End file.
